Rare 1980s Photos of 7 Mile and Gratiot

[313WX]

All credit goes to Anthony Ratkov for these pictures...

http://ratkov.com/the_detroit_encyclopedia/s

http://ratkov.com/the_detroit_encyclopedia/g

September 1987 [[looking SE towards Fordham and Gratiot). There looks to be some type of parade happening:



Taken in 1984 [[corner of Maddelein and Gratiot, looking SW towards 7 Mile and Gratiot)



August 1985 [[looking NW)



September 1987 [[looking east)

[stasu1213]

What year did the Montgomery Ward's closed

[Maof]

That Famous sign, was it a furniture store?

[313WX]

That Famous sign, was it a furniture store?

Federal's

Below is an image of a Federal's store with the exact same sign [[I believe somewhere along Grand River)...

http://www.atdetroit.net/forum/messa...438/128417.jpg

[313WX]

What year did the Montgomery Ward's closed

Sometime in the late 80s / early 90s?

It became a Shopper's World for a while, before being demolished for the Kroger [[now Mike's Fresh Market).

[RaumVogel]

Famous was a furniture store. Federals was a department store.

[Maof]

Famous was a furniture store. Federals was a department store.

That's what I thought. If I remember correctly, there was one on Mack Ave. near Marlborough or Philip. As kids, we would drag the furniture boxes home thru the alley and make houses out of them.

[jcole]

That's what I thought. If I remember correctly, there was one on Mack Ave. near Marlborough or Philip. As kids, we would drag the furniture boxes home thru the alley and make houses out of them.

The one in these pics was a Federal's before it was a Famous.

[waz]

I forgot all about those crazy semi-circle streetlights.

[milt721]

I forgot all about those crazy semi-circle streetlights.

Funny...that was my first thought, too.

[Hermod]

My newly wed wife and I just loved walking around the stores in that intersection when we lived on Reno between 7 and 8 mile in 1961. Two kids just starting out and with our lives in front of us. That year, the department stores were featuring women's clothes in a rich mulberry color and also an emerald green color. Women's clothes haven't looked tat good since that summer.

Unfortunately, Vietnam and cancer led to a far different future for both of us. She is many years in the grave and I am a far, far different person. Of course, Gratiot and 7 Mile will never again be what it was in those magic days of 1961. Sic Transit Gloria Mundae.

[Wesley Mouch]

My newly wed wife and I just loved walking around the stores in that intersection when we lived on Reno between 7 and 8 mile in 1961. Two kids just starting out and with our lives in front of us. That year, the department stores were featuring women's clothes in a rich mulberry color and also an emerald green color. Women's clothes haven't looked tat good since that summer.

Unfortunately, Vietnam and cancer led to a far different future for both of us. She is many years in the grave and I am a far, far different person. Of course, Gratiot and 7 Mile will never again be what it was in those magic days of 1961. Sic Transit Gloria Mundae.

Did you ever attend the, was it, Ramona Theatre? Was it still open?

[[Note also, that the CoD streetscape improvements are visible in several pictures. The curvy sidewalk lights w/ round globes as well as the little canopy that tries to make it look like a mall in a desperate attempt to fool the public. They also did a great job of hiding the stores own signs -- which no doubt helped the businesses greatly. These also appeared at Grand River Greenfield, and I think Oakman and Grand River.

Remember this when you invest in new streetscape junk. It doesn't age well. It doesn't really do any good either. But it was fun.

[IrishSpartan]

Did you ever attend the, was it, Ramona Theatre? Was it still open?

[[Note also, that the CoD streetscape improvements are visible in several pictures. The curvy sidewalk lights w/ round globes as well as the little canopy that tries to make it look like a mall in a desperate attempt to fool the public. They also did a great job of hiding the stores own signs -- which no doubt helped the businesses greatly. These also appeared at Grand River Greenfield, and I think Oakman and Grand River.

Remember this when you invest in new streetscape junk. It doesn't age well. It doesn't really do any good either. But it was fun.

The Ramona Theater was open until 1975. In 1961, their was certainly no talk of closing that place. The only issue was the lack of on-site or nearby dedicated parking lot. Definitely one of the landmarks of Gratiot Ave. in those days, especially in the stretch from Conner to 8 Mile Rd.

[Hermod]

Did you ever attend the, was it, Ramona Theatre? Was it still open?

We walked to the Ramona one night to see "The Alamo" with John Wayne. It really was an epic. In the re--runs they eliminated the camera pans over the thousands of dead Mexicans in the field. My theaters were the Ramona, the Civic, the Vogue, the Alger, the Harper, and the Woods. Of all of them, the Ramona was the classiest and the best.

[Hermod]

The Ramona Theater was open until 1975. In 1961, their was certainly no talk of closing that place. The only issue was the lack of on-site or nearby dedicated parking lot. Definitely one of the landmarks of Gratiot Ave. in those days, especially in the stretch from Conner to 8 Mile Rd.

Fortunately [[for us) Gratiot and 7 Mile was a half mile walk [[and very safe walk) in 1961. We lived in a flat on Reno that had been converted to four apartments and I was making big bucks working for the City of Detroit in the Bureau of Expressway Design. Two very happy young kids as I was 22 and she was 21. Then came the call to active duty as a newly minted 2nd Lt and my pay was cut in half. We went from the half-assed apartment in Detroit to a 47' X 8' house trailer in Aberdeen, MD in late Nov 61. My late and lamented first wife [[and mother of my children), I still have those memories of when we looked at the women's clothes in Monkey Wards and Federal and all of our future was in front of us. Our children and I still remember you though many years you have gone from us. Detroit, like you is still a wonderful memory regardless of the sad reality of today.

[Bham1982]

[[Note also, that the CoD streetscape improvements are visible in several pictures. The curvy sidewalk lights w/ round globes as well as the little canopy that tries to make it look like a mall in a desperate attempt to fool the public. They also did a great job of hiding the stores own signs -- which no doubt helped the businesses greatly. These also appeared at Grand River Greenfield, and I think Oakman and Grand River.

Remember this when you invest in new streetscape junk. It doesn't age well. It doesn't really do any good either. But it was fun.

This was a 1970's initiative to revitalize Detroit neighborhood retail districts. They thought semi-weatherproofing and "mallifying" the corridors would help compete with the malls.

It was the same initiative that created the Woodward and Washington Blvd. "transit malls" downtown.

In addition to the ones you mentioned, they put these "mall canopy and weird streetlight" structures up in New Center [[Woodward and the Blvd.) and a few places in NW Detroit [[I believe one stretch of 6 west of Woodward, somewhere along Schafer around 6 or 7 and somewhere along Wyoming around 6 or 7).

I'm pretty sure that remnants of these structures are still standing in NW Detroit. Either Wyoming or Schafer have these canopies [[or had, until a year or two ago, when I last passed through).

[Whitehouse]

Compared to this picture:



Nothing much still stands. Only two things I could find in Streetview.

[EastsideAl]

We walked to the Ramona one night to see "The Alamo" with John Wayne. It really was an epic. In the re--runs they eliminated the camera pans over the thousands of dead Mexicans in the field. My theaters were the Ramona, the Civic, the Vogue, the Alger, the Harper, and the Woods. Of all of them, the Ramona was the classiest and the best.

Wow, I remember going to all of those east side theaters, and more [[the Esquire, the Cinderella, the Admiral, the Punch & Judy, and, of course, the Eastown). We went to the Ramona a few times for Saturday matinees back when I had cousins who lived on Young near Chalmers. I remember the rotunda in the front and the rather luxurious appointments. My mother said it reminded her of a slightly less grand version of the Riviera on Grand River that she used to go to as a teenager.

Oddly, they were tearing down the theater at the same time we were redoing our porch. The color of the theater matched the color of our front steps, so we bought a load of their bricks cheap. Thus there are a few little pieces of the Ramona living on in a porch in Indian Village.

[EastsideAl]

There was also in that area, somewhere just north of 7 Mile if I recall, one of the very rare [[certainly so in those days) Korean restaurants in Detroit. My dad, who had served in Korea in the Army, really liked to go there to eat and talk with the owner, who had served in the ROK army.

[Brock7]

I don't remember the name of that Korean restaurant, but I do recall that Calvin Trillin gave it a good review. It's a Chinese restaurant now called Chan's.

[313WX]

I don't remember the name remember the name of that Korean restaurant, but I do recall that Calvin Trillin gave it a good review. It's a Chinese restaurant now called Chan's.

Chan's is very good. It has kind of devolved into a hole-in-the-wall, but you won't be disappointed with the food.

[Whitehouse]

http://www.waterwinterwonderland.com...?type=5&id=736
Includes the sad pictures of the Ramona being torn down.

http://cinematreasures.org/theaters/2623

[313WX]

Bump.

Came across this 1970s photo of 7 Mile and Gratiot:

[Gistok]

I too was in all of those east side theatres mentioned above [Except the Eastown]... the closest one to my house was the VOGUE, a very attractive streamlined moderne theatre... that was the flagship of that stretch of Harper Avenue... a great place for a Saturday matinee.

[WKL]

I worked at the Vogue while I was in collage, up until Suburban Detroit Theaters closed it. Work at the Alger first, until it closed. After the Vogue I was at the Eastland [[the one not attached to the mall). That one closing was not my fault.

The Vogue was the nicest of the lot.